Managing Director, Mezan Group

Evolve: What has motivated you to join your family business?

Mian Naveed: I joined in after completing my studies. I always wanted to join my family business where I can properly utilize my faculties. I have found it the best place for the investment of my potential.

Evolve: What were the financial challenges and how did you mobilize funds?

Mian Naveed:  We were already a sound company and did not have such issues. However, the important thing was to make the higher management trust my business insight. The challenge was to find the right place for investment.

Evolve: Were there any problems in getting employees to work with you?

Mian Naveed: This is the key area where we had to work a lot. The employees in the existing structure are not comfortable in accepting you as their leader and with time one has to prove his ability to lead the team. If the employees are not qualified, restructuring takes a lot of time.

Meanwhile, someone can leave your company and it's a tough time, which you get through with time. Once you get hold of things, it grows. For hiring the key employees, you have to prove yourself in the industry and the market should know that you are a good employer to get good professionals in your team.

Evolve: What are the current market trends?

Mian Naveed: Pakistan has a tremendous potential and a growing market.

Mezan Banaspati and Cooking Oil are one of the leading brands of Pakistan. In the food category, there is growth for brands that are performing well; the market sire is increasing along with the growth in population.

Evolve: Which business challenges are you facing and what business strategies have you employed to resolve them?

Mian Naveed: The competition in our industry is fierce, we look closely at what our customers need and we focus on our quality and services that give us an edge over our competitors.

Evolve: What are your future plans?

Mian Naveed: We keep on exploring new ideas and coming up with new products to cover important segments of our industry. It is unfair to our customers not to have a variety of our quality products. When they have found Mezan products healthy, we must not ignore their needs and allow them to buy unhealthy products from other vendors. We are also diversifying into other industries that will give a huge boost to our business.

Evolve: How can you rate your business in terms of quantity of products sold and quality of services offered?

Mian Naveed: We are among the top three players in our industry as far as our brand and our volume is concerned. We have a huge infrastructure which is being run by professionals, marketing and sales gurus of the industry. We have a number of financial, operational and production professionals who keep working on quality products and services.

Evolve:Who comprises the management board of your business?

Mian Naveed: The management board comprises seven directors and everyone has his own dedicated responsibilities and performs up to his potential to produce the best results.

Evolve:What has motivated you?

Mian Naveed: Pakistani market has a lot of potential. The knowledge that its a growing market inspires me. One can add so much value in society by enhancing standards. It gives everyone space to add one's own idea of how to improve the environment. It motivates me like anything.

Evolve: How do you generate new ideas?

Mian Naveed:  You need to keep filling your mind with what you see and what you hear. You need to be in touch with your frontin people because they are the ones who are in touch with your customers and it's always customers who give the right idea. You need good human resource and professionals, their experience and strategic way of thinking lead you in the right direction.

Evolve:Who is your ideal?

Mian Naveed:  Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) is my first ideal. Besides Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, De Allama Muhammad Iqbal and all the filled and blessed people of Allah are my ideals.

All I have learned about business is from my father, uncle and elders of my family. Their dedication, hard work and thinking is simply the way to lead a promising professional life.

Evolve: How do you define success?

Mian Naveed: Success is to achieve a level of satisfaction in whatever you want and whatever you do. It keeps you emotionally stable. Mental and physical health is also very important to lead a simple and happy life.

Evolve: What is the best way to achieve long-term success?

Mian Naveed: Consistency, believing in what you do, never giving up and helping others. All these commitments contribute to long term success. If something turns you down, come back more strongly at it.

Evolve: How do you build a successful customer base?

Mian Naveed: It is a simple but challenging part, just keep on adding value to your products and services, the more you do the more customers you are going to engage.

Evolve: Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula for being a successful entrepreneur?

Mian Naveed: Hard work is the only formula. Further is some leverage of time and money. The more you have the better it's going to be.

Everyone of your competitors has an equal amount of time but if you try to get some extra time you have an edge over others. If you work for 10-12 hours a day, work on Sundays, arrange for a boarding pass before you reach the airport, drive fast to save some time on the motorways, you can make a difference. One hour saved is equal to one meeting attended.

Evolve: If you could talk to one person from history, who would it be?

Mian Naveed: Without any second thought, it would be our Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAWW). Whether you want to learn about religion or whether Einstein was genius enough to help us, what else can you ask for? To me this will be the biggest success of my life and for myself.

Evolve:Name your favorite book.

Mian Naveed: Focus by Al Ries is one of my favorite books. This is from a o Own ways marketer who defines and defends the importance of focus by giving live examples of all the big companies we know. The power of focus is to be learned and followed. This is another formula of success that every successful man must follow.

Evolve:What is the favorite part of being an entrepreneur?

Mian Naveed: To do what you know and know what you do. This is where one can use his own skills and bring his own ways of doing business. I'd like free will; one can innovate and improvise. Quick decisions are the most demanding and rewarding part of being an entrepreneur.

Evolve:What are the three key elements for starting a successful business?

Mian Naveed:  Finance, human resource and good fortune are the basic ingredients of success.

Evolve:What has been the most satisfying moment in business? 

Mian Naveed: It's yet to come. However, having a successful brand and the teamwork we have is the most satisfying aspect of the business.

Evolve: How do you go about marketing your business?

Mian Naveed: Recruiting the right people and having the professional people working on your product and services is our approach. Looking at industry, adopting new practices, coming up with our own ideas, making sure to be different is our way of marketing. Our TV ads are the most liked ones.

Evolve: What is the culture of your organization?

Mian Naveed:  A friendly and homely culture exists in our organization where all departments work as a team and all have a common goal.

Everyone has his own defined area and responsibility, to get to this culture the normal mistakes of employees have to be ignored and sometimes even have to bear loss because of their failure but to support them and to give them confidence is what it takes to have harmony in an organization.

Evolve: In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.

Mian Naveed: Risk taker.

Evolve: What makes you happy?

Mian Naveed: After all the work, spending time with my family, making them happy, going on vacations and success in business are things that make a happy life.

Evolve: What sacrifices have you made to be successful?

Mian Naveed: Most of the time, taking time from personal life and giving it to professional life.

Evolve: What other company or business do you admire the most?

Mian Naveed: I admire all those who work professionally and are responsible for adding value to our society.

Evolve: Where do you see yourself and your business in the next 5 years?

Mian Naveed: We see ourselves as a leader in the cooking oil industry, a diversified company in other industries and among the top 10 companies of Pakistan.

Evolve: Do you ever think of joining politics?

Mian Naveed:  Yes! Anything or any way that I can contribute to the progress of my country must be done. The area that I would like to work on is education.